BLOCKBUSTERS BEGIN
Read film critic Peter Howell’s review of Iron Man 3 and check out our big summer movie preview,
Deck the halls with boughs of holly, it’s time for another Iron Man movie!
Wait a tic, we’re in the season of summer blockbusters, not feel-good Christmas ones.
All the ho-ho-hoing in Iron Man 3 would normally indicate a movie held back from Yuletide release, and not for reasons of merriment.
Except this one’s by Shane Black, a top Hollywood screenwriter turned writer/ director. He blows hot ( Lethal Weapon) and cold ( Last Action Hero), and he’s happiest when mixing metaphors, as when he last teamed with Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr. for the clever crime satire Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Their combustion this time produces what Downey’s brainiac billionaire Tony Stark calls a “piping hot mess.” He’s actually referring to himself, warning his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is also the head of Stark Industries, that he’s never going to be emotionally stable.
But the phrase does double duty as an excellent descriptor for the movie: a smoking heap of chuckles and knuckles, set to the ring of “Jingle Bells” and the clang of iron suits and war machines. It gives you an idea of how Marvel Comics might handle a remake of It’s a Wonderful Life.
Speaking of dualities, we have a nearly schizophrenic Stark suffering anxious flashbacks of last year’s The Avengers tussle (didn’t the good guys win that one?) while at the same time cockily daring this year’s super villain, a terrorist called the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), to bring it on, GWB style.
The taunt brings fire to Stark’s Malibu pad, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Iron Man 3begins on New Year’s Eve1999, as Stark meets two players who will later demonstrate what “karma” means: sexy botanist Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) and frantic nerd Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).
Jump to 2013, and Stark is dealing with as many challenges and threats as Black (and co-writer Drew Pearce) can stuff into their Plot-a-Matic machine, which includes a flyapart Iron Man outfit that acts as visual shorthand for Tony’s fractured psyche.
He’s as arrogant as ever, but strangely reluctant to suit up, even after the Mandarin embarks on a campaign of all-too-familiar global terror, which includes blowing up tourists outside the former Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a Hollywood metaphor I’m not gonna touch.
At this point, you may be asking yourself, “Where the heck are the Avengers?” That’s also the query a pesky kid named Harley (Ty Simpkins) keeps asking Stark when the action shifts to Tennessee, likely more for taxdeduction reasons than dramatic ones.
Good question, and we might also ask why Stark’s bodyguard Happy (Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man and Iron Man 2) and his pal Col. Rhodes (Don Cheadle) seem curi- ously underwritten. And why does the Mandarin speak like a redneck American, and why do those strange humanoid warriors, yet another distraction, keep bursting into flames?
It’s a lot to take in, especially when the third act dissolves into a giant clanking and burning mass of metal, mayhem and multiple Iron Man suits.
We need to remind ourselves that this is a comic book movie, where logic stops for popcorn and Twizzlers, and that Black never has been one for genre consistency.
On that basis, Iron Man 3 offers a few twisted pleasures. It’s funnier than Iron Man 2 (which wouldn’t be hard), and Downey is in fine comic form, especially when he’s sparring with young Simpkins, who thankfully throttles back on the precociousness.
The other actors also get their moments, especially Pearce and Kingsley, who know how to slice the ham even while striking Shakespearian poses.
And there’s an airborne rescue that will be tough to beat for thrills this summer, which will undoubtedly be referred to as the “barrel of monkeys” scene, even though those “monkeys” are people.
Yes, all this and monkey business, too. Did I mention this is blockbuster season? Ho, ho, ho!